Money is not everything in life. Being materialistic drags you away from your loved ones and makes you a slave of it lifelong and you cannot imagine and think anything other than money. It never gives you peace and harmony and always keeps you in a state of dissatisfaction.  Falling into the trap of money, you will also forget your creator and the real purpose of life.

I have experienced it when I was away from my motherland i.e. Kashmir two decades ago. I was in Saudi Arabia for about four years and was living a luxurious life. But I was living without my loved ones and felt alone for these years of my life. My heart felt the pain of separation of my loved ones. It made me feel at once that money is not everything for living a comfortable life. Life in Saudi made me realize the importance of money but also taught me the lesson that money is not the heart of life.  Rather, embracing our family and community helps us live longer and happier.

Over the years, many researchers have studied the people’s health trajectories and their broader lives, including their triumphs and failures in careers and marriage, and the findings have produced startling revelations. “The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health,” said Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "The people who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80,” said Robert Waldinger with his wife Jennifer Stone.

Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes. Researchers who have pored through data, including vast medical records and hundreds of in-person interviews and questionnaires, found a strong correlation between men’s flourishing lives and their relationships with family, friends, and community. Also, several studies found that people’s level of satisfaction with their relationships at age 50 was a better predictor of physical health than their cholesterol levels were.

Many researchers also found that marital satisfaction has a protective effect on people’s mental health. People who have happy marriages their moods don’t suffer even on the days when they have more physical pain. Those who have unhappy marriages feel both more emotional and physical pain. Those who keep warm relationships get to live longer and happier.  Loneliness is as powerful as smoking or alcoholism. Researchers also found that those with strong social support experienced less mental deterioration as they aged. Researchers also found that women who felt securely attached to their partners were less depressed and happy in their relationships two-and-a-half years later, and also had better memory functions than those with frequent marital conflicts. So one should never prefer money but loved ones who are always there for you when you need them the most. Money is not everything for life. There is life beyond money.

(Author is a postgraduate of pharmacy and former tutor of J&K Health Department)